Meadow Lake, Sask. man trains for Ironman event after incurable cancer diagnosis

A Meadow Lake, Sask., man is taking his incurable cancer diagnosis and raising funds and awareness for his rare condition.

Robert Kirschman is training for a 70.3 Ironman in December that will take place in Florida, tracking his training progress online.

He went to the hospital two years ago for what he thought were kidney stones, but was revealed to be a large tumour in his abdomen.

He said this gastrointestinal stromal tumour (GIST) is a rare form of cancer where chemotherapy treatment wasn’t effective.

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“I really wasn’t too concerned. I really thought, they told me I would have surgery and it was just one tumour, and I kind of thought that it would be over with,” Kirschman said.

He was put on a drug to shrink the tumour and he said he was very fatigued during that time.

“The tumour was about the size of my head,” he said.

Kirschman had surgery in February 2023 to remove his tumour and said he initially felt good.

“I really thought it was over.”

Then, in November 2023 he had a followup appointment where doctors found a bunch of spots on Kirshman’s liver.

“Which means the medication that I was on to prevent it from coming back actually had quit working,” he said.

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“It’s no longer curable. This is back and there is no treatment anymore that will totally fix this.”

He said there are other treatments he could choose from, but noted that they have a due date and his body would gain a resistance to them, and eventually he would run out.

He said one group, Life Raft Group Canada, helped him when he found out his cancer had metastasized.

Kirschman said the group got him in to be part of a drug trial program out of Calgary to try and keep his cancer under control.

“They provide you with education on what to expect moving forward, side effects moving forward.”

Kirschman has been a part of triathlons in the past and said he wanted to raise awareness and funding for Life Raft Group Canada.

Kirschman said this was a 1.9-kilometre swim, 91-kilometre bike and half marathon.

“It’s a distance that takes quite a bit of training and for me to do a fundraiser, there’s value in it.”

He said he’s dealing with side effects, but nothing that would prevent him from training for this upcoming event.

Kirschman has been documenting his training on his Facebook and Instagram pages to raise awareness and raise funds, which he says is the real work in his eyes.

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“I’m not a big social media guy. If you look at my past Facebook I think I posted once a year.”

His efforts have been hitting the mark, blowing past his first goal of $4,000 and now moving that goalpost to $7,500.

Kirschman said they are also looking at putting together a bike ride in Waskesiu, Sask., to help raise more funds as well.

“We haven’t fully finished the planning stages of that.”

David Josephy, president of Life Raft Group Canada, said their organization provides a home and forum for patients facing this rare form of cancer.

“In almost every case, someone who is diagnosed with a gastrointestinal stromal tumour (GIST) has never heard about the disease and doesn’t know anyone who has had it,” Josephy said.

He said they try to do outreach and teach people about the disease as well as advocating to different levels of government.

Josephy said one of the biggest hurdles they face is how little the general public knows about the disease.

“Anything we can do to raise awareness is really important.”

He said every dollar they receive goes into direct patient support and supporting research.

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